Big Data Career Notes: October 2022 Edition

In this monthly feature, we’ll keep you up-to-date on the latest career developments for individuals in the big data community. Whether it’s a promotion, new company hire, or even an accolade, we’ve got the details. Check in each month for an updated list and you may even come across someone you know, or better yet, yourself!

Akos Berzi

Crate.io, the enterprise data management company enabling data insights at scale, appointed Akos Berzi as its chief financial officer. Berzi is an entrepreneurial-minded finance leader with more than 20 years of experience in the field of strategic finance and business development.

“I am incredibly excited to join Crate.io at such an important time for the company,” Berzi said. “With plans to scale further globally, I am looking forward to supporting our ambitious growth plans. Crate.io has a great team in a forward-looking industry that represents the next big thing after my endeavors at Organica Water and Transcend Software in the cleantech space. I believe that Crate.io will play a substantive role in the industry 5.0 ecosystem and beyond, and I feel privileged to be part of the next wave of digitalization.”

Annabelle Bexiga

Quantexa, a data and analytics software company, appointed Annabelle Bexiga to its board of directors. Bexiga currently serves as the non-executive director for DWS Group, Stonex Group, and Triton International. Prior to her current roles, she served as the chief information officer advisor at Zoom.

“This incredible journey of continuous learning from brilliant technologists and courageous leaders continues through my board and advisory work,” said Bexiga. “I am especially excited to join the board of Quantexa because they truly understand that today in the face of rapidly changing conditions, enterprises need to drive greater accuracy in decisions and innovation with data and analytics technology at the core. The Quantexa team are working to help organizations solve today’s major challenges in utilizing data effectively to improve their operations and the services they provide to their customers.”

Samuel Bonamigo

Databricks, the lakehouse company, appointed Samuel Bonamigo as its senior vice president and general manager of the EMEA region. Bonamigo joined Databricks from Google, where he most recently served as EMEA South VP for GCP helping to grow the team, manage large partnerships, and work with the entire ecosystem of partners and GSIs.

“I’m thrilled to join Databricks and I really think we are in the early days of the potential for growth in the EMEA region,” says Bonamigo. “The impact we are going to make over the next year as more customers adopt our Lakehouse architecture will be huge. I can’t wait to see the continued impact that we will have on customers across all industries, as data and AI are increasingly needed to transform businesses and solve some of the world’s toughest problems.”

Sue Bostrom

SingleStore, the cloud-native database built for speed and scale to power data-intensive applications, appointed Sue Bostrom to its board of directors. Bostrom, a former executive vice president and chief marketing officer at Cisco Systems, serves on the board of directors of ServiceNow, GitLab, Samsara, Druva, and Outreach.

“SingleStore has a unique value proposition that meets a very important need in the market,” said Bostrom. “This is reflected in both its high growth rate and customer retention. I look forward to working with Raj Verma and the rest of the board to help SingleStore fulfill the promise of this exciting market.”

Tom Casey

Splunk Inc., the data platform leader for security and observability, appointed Tom Casey as its senior vice president and general manager. Casey will lead the company’s platform strategy, including the development and operations of the Splunk Platform.

“Splunk‘s success and industry leadership are rooted in innovation and customer-focused investment in products, services and technologies that enhance security, improve visibility and drive resilience,” said Casey. “There’s an immense opportunity to unlock new insights and actions that help customers innovate as we grow Splunk’s core Platform offering and strengthen our deep customer and partner relationships.”

Tifenn Dano Kwan

Amplitude, Inc., a digital analytics platform provider, appointed Tifenn Dano Kwan as its chief marketing officer. Dano Kwan will be responsible for leading all aspects of Amplitude’s marketing organization. Dano Kwan most recently served as the chief marketing officer at Collibra.

“People love Amplitude’s product. Not only does it give visibility into the entire customer journey, it helps companies build incredible products that drive growth,” said Dano Kwan. “Amplitude’s product superiority combined with its passionate and humble leadership team is exactly why I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to join. I look forward to working with this growing team and am excited to become an Amplitude power user myself. I believe digital analytics is going to transform the way businesses grow.”

Joe Dillon

Baffle, Inc., a cloud data protection company, appointed Joe Dillon as its executive vice president of sales. Dillon comes to Baffle from Code42, where he served as vice president of security solutions sales. He has also held executive sales positions at several technology companies, including Springpath, Inc., Seagate Technology’s cloud division and Trustwave.

“This is a pivotal time in Baffle’s growth trajectory, with an opportunity to further Baffle’s stellar market reputation,” said Dillon. “In the face of ever-present cybersecurity threats, there is a growing need for data protection that aligns with compliance requirements. And with this demand, Baffle is poised to expand its market share in the data protection space. Surrounded by a talented team, I look forward to helping the company advance our products and platform for customers to boost their competitive differentiation.”

Lisa Krueger

Yellowbrick Data, the multi-cloud data warehouse vendor, appointed Lisa Krueger as its vice president of customer success. Krueger brings over 25 years of experience to Yellowbrick, previously serving in senior customer success roles at companies including Couchbase, DataStax, Talend Corporation, and Oracle.

“Yellowbrick provides a wonderful opportunity for me professionally, and I am drawn to the environment of this young company that is disrupting a legacy market and shaking up the status quo,” said Krueger. “The ability to be nimble and move fast is very attractive. Working with Marc and an executive team that obsesses over the customer experience drew me to this new role.”

Kevin Magee

Zyte, the leader in reliable web data extraction for small businesses and enterprises, appointed Kevin Magee as its chief technology officer. Magee will be responsible for managing Zyte’s research and development, technical operations, data science and artificial intelligence capabilities.

“As analytics and other forms of data consumption continue to evolve, organizations are finding that their data collection and integration operations are evolving in ways that aren’t necessarily efficient,” said Magee. “Trends over the last five years are reflecting that there is a real struggle for organizations to come to grips with the data that they need to innovate and accelerate their businesses. The opportunity that this presents a web extraction market leader like Zyte is tremendous. With a successful history, a large customer base, and a green field of opportunity, I’m looking forward to engaging with the Zyte leadership and culture to create solutions that drive our customers’ initiatives forward.”

Ahsan Malik

SnapLogic appointed Ahsan Malik as its chief financial officer. Malik will be responsible for leading SnapLogic’s global finance and legal organizations as well as financial activities including accounting, reporting, and financial planning and analysis.

“I am excited to join SnapLogic at such a pivotal time and take on this new challenge of helping drive the company’s growth,” said Malik. “My teams will be focused on refining the company’s financial strategy and execution, and delivering insights and action plans to support efficient operations. SnapLogic has a strong balance sheet and a tremendous opportunity for continued growth.”

Kevin Mandia

Cohesity appointed Kevin Mandia to its board of directors. Mandia currently serves as the chief executive officer of Mandiant. Mandia brings more than 25 years of experience in information and cybersecurity to Cohesity’s board.

“We’ve recently witnessed an explosion of vicious ransomware attacks where cybercriminals are getting smarter, often seizing legacy backups in an effort to paralyze companies and force payouts. Data security and data management leaders must work hand-in-hand to keep bad actors in their place,” said Mandia. “I’m excited to join Cohesity’s board as the company plays a critical role in helping enterprises improve their security posture. In my mission to help organizations protect themselves from cyberattacks, Cohesity’s modern data security architecture and focus on defending data and recovering from attacks is a significant asset in the fight against cybercrime.”

Nancy McNeill 

Signal AI, the provider of the Signal AI External Intelligence platform, appointed Nancy McNeill as its global chief revenue officer. McNeill brings over 20 years of experience to the role, including serving as CRO at Dow Jones. She has also held senior executive positions at Thomson Reuters.

“From its technology to its people, Signal AI’s potential is immense – especially in the U.S. It is a privilege to join such an outstanding, innovative team. I know that together we will be able to dramatically expand Signal AI’s footprint in both established and emerging markets,” McNeill said. “I especially look forward to working closely with our customers to provide the tools they need to make informed and confident decisions in a way that’s not been possible before.”

Monica Pool Knox

Domo appointed Monica Pool Knox as its chief people officer. Pool Knox will be responsible for leading the global human resources organization. Prior to Domo, Pool Knox led the global talent management department for Microsoft.

“I was drawn to Domo by the opportunity to work with a global team of incredibly talented professionals who care deeply about winning together and going above and beyond for their customers and each other,” said Monica Pool Knox. “With a belief in the power of data, I’m also excited to leverage Domo’s technology to help optimize business results internally through Domo’s HR team and externally through the HR teams of our customers.”

Ann Schlemmer

Percona, a provider of open source database software, support, and services, appointed Ann Schlemmer as its chief executive officer. Schlemmer has served as president at Percona for the past two years and has served in multiple leadership roles since joining the company in 2013.

“First and foremost, I’d like to thank Peter Zaitsev for the exemplary leadership he’s provided Percona since its inception,” said Schlemmer. “Without his leadership, Percona wouldn’t be in such an advantageous and exciting position as we find ourselves in today. As Percona’s new chief executive, I am committed to continuing Peter’s legacy of open-source excellence, and to building upon that groundwork to take Percona to even greater heights. There has never been a more exciting time to be a part of Percona.”

Thomas Schröder

Teradata appointed Thomas Schröder as its vice president of Central Europe. In this role, Schröder will be responsible for Teradata’s go-to-market strategy in Central Europe, helping to develop a strong pipeline of opportunities in the region and enabling customers in Germany and Switzerland.

“I’m incredibly excited to be joining Teradata to support its global go-to-market strategy and grow sales opportunities within Central Europe,” said Schröder. “I am fully aligned with Teradata’s cloud vision and its commitment to provide customers with the most open, powerful and connected analytics in the market today. I look forward to bringing my 20+ years’ experience in enterprise sales to bear as we strengthen our current customer relationships and build lasting new ones.”

Varun Verma and Jason Selvidge

Striim, Inc., a global leader in unified real-time data integration and streaming, appointed Varun Verma as its vice president of software development and cloud. Verma will be responsible for leading the development of all global cloud services.

In addition, Jason Selvidge has joined Striim as its vice president of software development. Selvidge will be responsible for driving standards-based product development and delivering innovative operational improvements to optimize company revenue and profitability.

To read last month’s edition of Career Notes, click here.

Do you know someone that should be included in next month’s list? If so, send us an email at [email protected]. We look forward to hearing from you.